...there's both eatin' and drinkin' in it

And so, for those of you who have been following along, my Project Food Blog odyssey has come to an end. The world, it seems, was not ready for boiled boxty. That, in my humble opinion, is their loss. Now, though, it’s high time I returned you to your regularly scheduled Spud programming where, this week, Spud goes Indian…

People who follow the recipe to the last word are the most boring people. Use your instincts. Chefs may have created combinations which (they think) are fantastic but you, you create your own fantastic.

I scribbled furiously. Those words just uttered by Atul Kochhar were words to cook by.

In truth, the menu for the day, which included naan bread, pulao rice, dal, lamb rogan josh, homestyle chicken curry and mango chutney, sounded like bog-standard Indian restaurant fare. And that may have seemed, to some at least, to be at odds with the chef’s Michelin stardom. But to think that was to miss the point. Absorb what the man had to say about spices and oils, about onions, garlic, ginger and lentils, and you could begin to make that Indian menu your own.

It starts with understanding that as spices grow old, they lose their pzazz, so you buy only small amounts of whole spices, store in well-sealed containers and grind if and when you need to. Though I knew this in theory, the occasionally ancient contents of my spice cupboard indicate that my practice has been different. Oops.

When the time comes to cook, you can start encouraging those flavours to come out by pounding whole spices. After that, you will need to introduce your spices to oil and to heat. The oil must be hot enough for the spices to sizzle and release their own natural oils, but it should not be smoking. What that means is:

You should never use olive oil for Indian cooking.

Eek! Guilty as charged.

Probably shouldn't use Olive Oyl either...(image from www.popeye.com)

The lovely flavour of olive oil is best reserved for Mediterranean purposes, whilst its low smoke point means that it doesn’t become hot enough for spices to really open up. What you can use is a neutral vegetable oil, such as grapeseed, instead.

In fact the fat or oil used in cooking is probably the single biggest distinguishing feature between the different regional cuisines within India: in the north, they tend to use butter or ghee, in the south, coconut oil, mustard oil is used in the east and sesame or ground nut oil in the west.

Regardless of the type of oil, however, you can be fairly safe in the assumption that Indians use a lot of it. There were audible gasps from the course attendees at the liberal pouring of oil at the start of every dish. That, Atul counseled, was needed for the onions.

Ah yes, know your onions...

He stressed that it was important to cook onions properly and they needed plenty of oil for that to happen (when pressed, he did say that you could drain excess oil off after the onions were done). Salt, by drawing moisture out, would also help onions to cook evenly, but other additions, such as ginger/garlic paste, should only enter the fray after onions were cooked to the degree required – be that translucent, golden brown or very brown.

While oil was the key to onions, salt was the key to lentils. In India, we were informed, lentils are always cooked in salted water, in contrast to the French-lead practice which dictates that salt should only be added towards the end of cooking, for fear that the lentils won’t soften. That fear, Atul says, is unfounded. An entire subcontinent agrees and has more flavourful lentils as a result.

And as he added more butter to the potatoes in his bombay aloo, he paused to address his Irish audience.

“Potatoes and butter,” he said. “I don’t need to explain to you guys about potatoes and butter.”

Bombay Aloo

This is adapted slightly from the version of bombay aloo that we made during the course with Atul Kochhar. You can really use any kind of potatoes for this, though waxy ones will hold their shape better.

Atul’s recipe as written down didn’t specify ginger but I swear I saw him add some, so I followed suit. I threw in garlic because, well, I like garlic. I also included peanuts, which Atul mentioned would be a very typical addition to this dish in Gujarat, and a very good call it was, too. The result is my own kind of fantastic.

You’ll need:

25g raw unsalted peanuts

0.25 tsp cumin seeds

1 tsp black mustard seeds

0.5 tsp fenugreek seeds

25g butter

2 tblsp vegetable oil

about 10 curry leaves

1 medium-sized red chilli, finely chopped

1 small onion (about 100g), peeled and chopped

2-3cm cube root ginger, peeled and finely diced

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

0.25 tsp gnd turmeric

0.5 tsp garam masala

3 medium-sized potatoes (about 600g), peeled or not as you prefer and cut into rough 2-3cm chunks

0.5 tsp salt plus more for cooking the onions

1.5 tsp lemon juice

1 tbsp chopped coriander or more to taste

You’ll also need:

A baking tray for toasting the peanuts, a heavy-bottomed frying pan (mine is a 26cm pan) and a mortar and pestle for crushing spices.

The Steps:

Preheat your oven to 160C. Then place the shelled, raw peanuts on a baking tray and toast in the oven for 15-20 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove, allow to cool, then crush the peanuts coarsely.

Meanwhile, lightly pound the cumin seeds, mustard seeds and fenugreek seeds using a mortar and pestle.

Place your heavy-bottomed pan over a medium heat and add the oil and butter. When hot enough so that the spices sizzle straight away, add the cumin, mustard seeds and fenugreek to the pan along with the curry leaves and chopped chilli. Stir briefly, then add the onions and a pinch of salt. Cover the pan, lower the heat and cook the onions gently for 3-4 minutes, without colouring and stirring occasionally.

Remove the lid, add the ginger and garlic and stir and cook for about a minute more.

Add the turmeric and garam masala, stir briefly, then add the potatoes,lemon juice,salt and enough hot water to just cover the potatoes. Simmer for about 10 minutes with the lid on. Remove the lid and simmer for another 5-10 minutes more, until the potatoes are just cooked through.

Stir in the coriander and simmer for a few more minutes or until the liquid has mostly evaporated. If the dish is still quite liquid, raise the heat so that the liquid boils off more quickly and preferably before the potatoes turn to mush.

Garnish with the crushed roasted peanuts. Serve with raita, naan bread, chutneys and dal or just toss with some natural yogurt and eat it as is.

The Variations:

I rather fancy throwing in some chopped fresh tomatoes next time when adding the potatoes.

Lucky you!!! I really love this great chef ever since I saw him once on Saturday’s Kitchen on BBC 1 on Saturday’s mornings!! I followed his career ever since! He truly rocks the culinary world & he is so humble too!

I made several of his dishes & they never fail me!! What a lovely day that must have been!

Most envious I was when I heard of your date with Atul!Thank you for the top tips, particularly regarding Old Spice..I have been guilty of impatient onion cooking and i probably haven’t been lashing in enough oil I guess, so a valuable tip too!Onward Spud; was sorry to see Project Food Blog end for you. Boxty rules!

Meister: if you love potatoes, then you have most definitely come to the right place, and if you like curry + potatoes, then bombay aloo is the one for you :)

Ben: ah, glad to know you too of course and expecting, nay requiring, your continued presence in PFB for a long time; as for my would-be pizza entry, I had such plans – a trio of pizzas with potato & Guinness pizza as the pièce de résistance – I might make those babies yet…

Sophie: it was a lovely day and I couldn’t agree more with your thoughts on Atul – a master of spice and a real gent

Yvette: I have been guilty of all of those things, but I will be working to improve – we may just have to have that Indian dinner that got bumped in favour of the Irish extravaganza for Project Food Blog!

Hey Gastroanthropologist – sure I was hoping to go a bit further but, alas, it was not to be! And I agree about using ghee, it *is* good for the soul. As I heard Nigella Lawson put it on tv the other day – never apologise for butter!

I’m sorry that you didn’t advance. It is the world’s loss! I love your photo collage and your cute prose about the mistakes you’ve made in keeping spices and in using olive oil. Do those “sins” count as not following recipes to the letter? :)

DEVASTATED you didn’t get through to Round 5. I can’t believe it. Just explaining last night to my family all about boxty, having gleand all my kowledge on the topic from you. Oh well! Onward and upward!

My spice drawer was a veritable King Tut’s Tomb of ancient jars. Thank goodness for moving – it gave me the perfect excuse to purchase new packages of spices that I fear may be difficult to acquire in Manila. Many thanks for sharing the tips and info from Chef Kochhar, particularly about the varying oils used by different regions of India. 8-)